MUMBAI: The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has issued LoI (Letter of Intent) to eight community radio stations in Tamil Nadu. Permissions have been granted to set up stations at Namakkal, Tiruchencode, Kumarapalayam Madurai and two in Tanjavore.

The Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) has been playing a pivotal role in the growth and development of these community radios in terms of policy, planning and training.

CEMCA director Dr R Sreedher says, Out of the eight community radio stations to come up in Tamil Nadu, six would be run by educational institutes and two by NGOs. The two campus radio stations would be Thanjavur based Tamil University and Periyar Maniammai University and the NGO ones include Madurai based PRADA. These stations have received their LoI and are in various stages of being set up....

Community radio stations by NGOs would opt for transmitters by Nomad India Network and other by WEBEL West Bengal Electronics or (BEL) Bharat Electronics Limited.

Two or three stations would be signing GOPA after the elections and we foresee getting the stations on air before 15 August,... adds Sreedher.

The growth of community radio in the country has gained impetus with the number of functional Community Radio Stations (CRS) increasing from 27 last year to 41 today, with 38 being educational institutions, according to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has issued LoI to about 129 organisations for setting up CRS, including 70 educational institutions, 31 NGOs and nine state agricultural universities among others. Out of these, 21 institutions have received their Standing Advisory Committee on Radio Frequency Allocation (SACFA) clearance and eight have signed the Grant of Permission Agreement (GOPA).